The 19th-century politician and university professor Count Goblet d’Alviella commissioned a remarkable house in Brussels in 1882.
Designed by the young architect Octave van Rysselberghe, the house at Rue Faider 10 in Saint-Gilles resembles an Italian Renaissance palazzo with a loggia at the top.
The owner showed off his learning with a carving of the goddess Minerva and a frieze illustrating the sea god Neptune. “Those who love art,” reads the Greek inscription.
The architect Octave van Rysselberghe lived in this house from 1883 until 1888.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
